Passengers of teen drivers at greater risk than the drivers

An analysis of fatal crashes involving teenage drivers has found that the victims in these deadly accidents are more often passengers or other drivers than the teen drivers themselves.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety examined 10 years of data, looking at fatal accidents involving drivers ages 15 to 17. Nearly two-thirds of the people killed in such accidents were passengers, people in other cars, cyclists, pedestrians and other road users, the AAA reported.

In Washington state, 142 teenagers died in traffic collisions from 1998 through 2007, the agency reported. During that same period, another 262 people were victims of teen drivers.

There has been a decline overall in the number of fatal accidents involving young drivers, dropping 35 percent in the period studied, however.